The present invention relates generally to network communication, and more particularly, to a method for reducing event pressure on managers in a wireless communication network.
Designing, building, and implementing a wireless communication network such as a cellular network requires significant engineering and technical knowledge. The amount of engineering and technical knowledge required to operate and maintain a wireless communication network is equally significant.
A cellular communication system, for example, is a complex network of systems and elements. Typical elements include 1) a radio link to the subscriber a units (cellular telephones) which is usually provided by at least one and typically several base transceiver stations (BTS), 2) a communication link between the base transceiver stations, 3) a controller, typically one or more base station controllers or centralized base station controllers (BSC/CBSC), to control communication between and to manage the operation and interaction of the base transceiver stations, 4) a call controller or switch, typically a mobile switching center (MSC), for routing calls within the system, and 5) a link to the land line or public switch telephone system (PSTN) which is usually also provided by the MSC.
Within each of these elements are numerous subsystems and components. For example, a base station will at least include radio frequency power amplifiers, frequency synthesizers, signal converters, modems, power supplies, fans, etc. A CBSC, for example, may include a mobility manager, voice coders, transcoders, echo cancellers, and may further provide a link to an operations and maintenance center (OMC). The MSC includes systems for switching calls and for providing call related services such as call waiting, call forwarding, voice mail, and the like. Needless to say there are many systems, subsystems, system elements and components that have to function and interact properly for the cellular communication system to work. Furthermore, the many systems, subsystems, system elements and components of a cellular network are arranged hierarchically, wherein the operation of a few or many components may be controlled and managed by one or several elements at a higher hierarchical position within the network. As a result, certain system elements and components of a cellular network are considered managers, which manage the operations of certain other network elements by communicating with agents residing on the network elements.
When things go wrong in a cellular communication system, there are a number of indications. For example, audible and visual indicators (alarms and flashing lights) may activate indicating one or more elements are not functioning properly. Network performance statistics, observed by the cell network operator, may move outside a normal operating range thus indicating that performance of the network is less than optimal and hence suggesting a problem with the system. A general indication telling the operator something has happened at a network element is known as an event or event notification. While most events are informative in nature, some events notify an operator that something is wrong in the network. This is a special form of an event called an alarm. The large volume of data generated within the communication system and the complexity of the data often exceeds the ability of the operators to comprehend or take action on a particular problem, especially if confronted with thousands of events during a short period of time. This leaves the system operators unable to effectively manage the system.
The typical response to a problem is to observe the alarm or alarms, and to react to whatever it is generating the alarm condition. This is known as fault based reaction. Several specialized schemes such as alarm correlation, the use of filters, or the use of simple event counters in the managers have been established in an attempt to reduce the number of events and alarms that must be reviewed or investigated by system operators. One of the problems with such schemes is that the transmission of too many events and alarms from agents to managers within a cellular network can clog the communication link between manager and agent. Additionally, a large number of events may cause the operator to miss a critical alarm. Furthermore, the processing resources of a manager may be severely curtailed as a result of reviewing and investigating the large number of event notifications and alarms that it receives from one or many agents. To reduce the large stream of event notifications and alarms that are transmitted from an agent to a manager, specialized event counters have been utilized which operate within each agent to reduce the event notification stream prior to its transmission to the manager. These methods, however, tend to require highly specific software developed especially for reducing event notifications, wherein the event reduction method is put directly into the software. As a result, implementation of the software requires a large amount of special configuration set-up on the part of the operator. Furthermore, with these methods, duplication of functionality within management areas is unavoidable. Such duplication results in large agent code images, which can be especially troublesome when dealing with embedded systems wherein memory size is highly constrained.
Current systems typically utilize filters at the agent level to reduce the flow of event notifications to the manager. However, the current systems use event counting and event performance thresholding schemes at the manager level to discriminate between alarming and non-alarming events. Because of the hierarchical nature of cellular networks, expansion of the network results in maintenance and operation of a higher number of agents by each of the managers. Therefore, with the current event notification reduction schemes being performed in the managers, expansion of the network can severely hinder the capabilities of the managers. Thus, there is a need for a more intelligent system and efficient system for managing events at the network element (agent), and reducing events pressure using existing systems and components.